Records with “disastrous consequences” for the world: July 2023 was indeed the hottest month ever recorded on Earth, the European service Copernicus confirmed on Tuesday, detailing data that panic all the counters.
Last month, marked by heat waves and fires around the world, was 0.33°C warmer than the month that held the record so far (July 2019, which had reached an average of 16.63°C ). The air temperature was also 0.72°C warmer than the average (1991-2020) for July, Copernicus said in its bulletin.
The suspense was limited: as early as July 27, even before the end of the month, scientists had deemed it “extremely likely” that July 2023 would be the hottest month on record, all seasons combined.
A dark observation which had made the Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, say that humanity had left the era of global warming to enter that of “global boiling”.
The oceans also bear witness to this worrying development, with abnormally high surface temperatures since April and unprecedented levels in July. An absolute record was thus reached on July 30 with 20.96°C and for the whole month, the surface temperature was 0.51°C above the average (1991-2020).
“We have just witnessed new records for both global air and ocean surface temperatures in July. These records have dire consequences for people and the planet, exposed to more extreme events. frequent and more intense,” said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the European Copernicus Service on Climate Change (C3S).
The signs of global warming caused by human activities – starting with the use of fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) – have indeed appeared simultaneously across the world.
They are omnipresent: Greece partly devastated by the flames as well as Canada, moreover victim of terrible floods, crushing heat on southern Europe, North Africa, the south of the United States and part of China, victim shortly after of torrential rain…
The scientific network World Weather Attribution (WWA) has already concluded that the recent heat waves in Europe and the United States would have been “virtually impossible” without the effect of human activity.
Copernicus also reports that the Antarctic sea ice has reached its lowest extent for a month of July since satellite observations began, at 15% below the average for that month.
“2023 is the third hottest year so far with 0.43°C above the recent average” and “a global average temperature in July 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels”, also points out Samantha Burgess.
This figure of 1.5°C is highly symbolic as it is the most ambitious limit set by the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global warming. However, the threshold referred to in this international agreement relates to averages over many years and not over a single month.
“Even if all of this is only temporary, it shows the urgency of making ambitious efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, which are the main cause of these records”, concludes Samantha Burgess.
The year 2023 may not be done breaking records. “A relatively warm end of the year is expected for 2023 due to the development of the El Niño phenomenon”, recalls Copernicus.
This cyclical climatic phenomenon over the Pacific is indeed synonymous with additional global warming.
08/08/2023 08:44:01 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP